Leadership in nursing entrepreneurs

Nurse Entrepreneurship

Nurse entrepreneurs are nurses who establish themselves as independent nurses and structure their own business around it. According to Pat Bemis, RN, head of the National Nurses in Business Association, they form a "sort of secret society" (Hanink, n.d.) but actually there are hundreds of entrepreneur nurses in existence.

Nurse entrepreneurs vary considerably by category. The largest category is that of the nurse legal consultant group, succeeded by case managers. Nursing education is hefty, specially given the increased demand for competency testing, whilst forensic nursing is popular too.

Some nurse entrepreneurs offer a product rather than a service as, for instance, Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating that provides precooked meals to anyone wanting to follow nutritional guidelines, whilst other entrepreneur nurses combine nursing-involved activities with other work on the side (an opportunity that is usually unavailable in institutional nursing) (Hanink, n.d.).

Education for entrepreneur nurses is generally the same as for regular nurses with some business education combined. Some, therefore, are graduates of two-year associate programs whilst others combine certification programs with personal study and research. Risk is needed and so is input of money - approximately $8,000 to cover computers, business cards, phone lines and equipment for one's specific service or product (Hanink, n.d.). Qualities needed are the desire and ability to serve as well as to multitask, to take business risks and to assess thoroughly and carefully. Nursing, however, is greatly in demand and this business, according to Bemis, has fewer risks than most others.

In short, Entrepreneur nursing offers various perks including flexibility and the ability to go one's own way as well as to choose one's employers and to decide how to use one's time.

Analysis

Nurse entrepreneurs according to Bemis form a "sort of secret society" (Hanink, n.d.). The concealment perhaps lies in the aspect that the mercenary tinge implicit in entrepreneurship conflicts with the connotation of nursing that is historically known to be selfless, other-oriented, and altruistic. Nursing seems to be the polar opposite of entrepreneurship that has all the tinges of capitalism. And yet, nurses have to make money. And capitalism, going to its essence, is just that. In fact, capitalism has a worse name than it should. People, since classical times, have always been involved in generating money in order to live, at one time through trading cattle and working the land now in commerce and providing goods and services. Practically, people need money as barter and in order to survive and so they exchange their goods and services for money. When done honestly and meticulously with customer coming first, capitalism is the most effective way of performing this service, with some of the most successful entrepreneurs classically dedicating themselves to ensuring care of their employees and to acts of philanthropy (Johnson, 1977). Charity, selflessness, altruism and entrepreneurship are, therefore, not contradictory. It is well-known that the well-paid traditional nurse is likely to be a better worker better able to devote more attention to her patient (Hardin & . Kaplow, 2001). Deductively, therefore, the independent nurse who is motivated to work well in order to be successfully self-employed would likely (although not necessarily) be a better nurse in terms of the intrinsic nursing characteristics than those employed by institutions.

Ironically, entrepreneur nursing can potentially make one into a better nurse, for aside from being motivated to perform excellently, the entrepreneur nurse can adopt her own style and afford to conduct thorough research into nursing theories and models that culminate in enhanced nursing.

The institutional nurse is classically overworked and, therefore, has little time for arbitrary activities; the entrepreneur nurse, on the other hand, can adequately fulfill the expectations of evidence-based nursing where she has optimum time to conduct research, test it, and implement it.

The entrepreneur nurse can also choose to volunteer if she so wishes -- an option, give the time constrains of the regular nurse that is generally closed to the regular nurse. Moreover, choosing her patients and being less strained, the entrepreneur nurse can also potentially better fulfill the Florence Nightingale inspired objective of being a classically caring nurse with patients coming first and foremost to her attention.